Primarily a collection of news links about all 10 Horizon League teams on a daily basis, culled from online newspapers, school athletic websites, the conference website, and school newspapers, plus some other content from time to time.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

News On The Horizon 11/21/2010

Butler 88, Ball State 55 — A 33-point win? Ferseriously? The Cardinals could only make this a game for the first six minutes before multiple 10-0 runs vaulted the national champion runners-up into a rout before halftime. Weak shooting and minimal 3-point attempts didn't help the cause either, although Malik Perry finished with a nifty 13 points. So that's something to build on. Ball State's next game: Thursday 11/25, 1:45 a.m., vs. St. John's in the Great Alaska Shootout

Akron 91, Youngstown State 84 (OT) — Probably your funnest game of the day, if you're into frenetic scores and baskets aplenty. The game was tied 18 times ... eighteen freaking times. On the 16th tie, however, Brett McClanahan drained a buzzer-beating three to force overtime, at which point Akron took over and went off for 14 more points. Sadness engulfed the nearby Penguins. McClanahan and Zeke Marshall both finished with 22 points, but Nikola Cvetinovic was the high man with 27. Put that three-headed cerberus together, and you have 78 percent of their scoring. There's balanced, and there's getting the job done. Akron's next game: Wednesday 11/24 vs. Cleveland State (SportsTime Ohio)

Star-divide...Loyola-Chicago 82, Western Michigan 64 — Talk about a big home letdown. LUC finished the first half on a 15-0 run to quiet the WMU offense in a way that Kent State football could not (sport crossover!) and the Broncos just couldn't claw back at all. Either it was a turnover or a missed threeball (2-for-16) ... nothing really worked. Flenard Whitfield had a salvageable day with 17 ponits and eight rebounds. Everyone else probably feels bad though. WMU's next game: Tuesday, 11/12 at Wisconsin-Milwaukee

[Comment From Corey Corey : ] Hello Kyle! A friend and I are taking our first visit to Hinkle this Saturday to watch Butler take on Ball State. Any areas in particular of Hinkle we should check out/walk by/look at for historical or coolness value? Also is there anything around the fieldhouse we should check out to make our voyage complete?Friday November 19, 2010 5:06 Corey5:06

Go 90 minutes early, and just walk around the concourses. I could read you the map, but it's better to discover all the corners. And you will.

Important Upcoming Games... * Butler @ Siena (Nov. 23)—Ah yes, two of the most notable Cinderella teams of recent memory (although Butler has probably officially played their way out of being considered a Cinderella again). Siena had a great three-year run where they made the Dance in all three years and won first round games against Vanderbilt and Ohio State. As for Butler, well, you already know about their magical run last year. On paper, Butler appears to be the better team, but Siena returns two All-Conference players in Ryan Rossiter and Clarence Jackson, and is playing at the ever-tough Times Union Center. The Saints can ill afford to drop to 0-3 on the young season, while Butler is out to prove that their struggles against Louisville were just early season hiccups.

The Cardinals welcomed the reigning runners-up to the unveiling of their new arena, the KFC Yum! Center. They weren’t all that gracious as hosts, however, as they spent 40 minutes wiping the floor with the Bulldogs. Butler was simply not ready for the press that Louisville threw at them, turning the ball over 17 times and shooting a dismal 35% from the floor. The final score — 88-73 — doesn’t do justice to the whipping Butler took, as they were down by as much as 24 in the second and were able to maintain a level of respectability by fouling for the last 2:13.

Here's a unplucked gem of a game. It's a pair of programs which have experienced great peaks in the past decade, and have settled back into roles as solid-but-unspectacular members of their conference communities. Milwaukee has been "stuck behind Butler" in the Horizon for the last few years. Since Rob Jeter's ascension to the head coaching job in 2005, the Panthers have not achieved the NCAA heights reached by his currently orange-clad predecessor, but the win total has edged up in each of the last four years, from nine to 14 to 17 to 20. Is that fast enough, though? The senior class, which includes top-scoring guard Tone Boyle and 6-7 Anthony Hill, likely holds the key to Jeter's continued employment there. The team is coming off a 1-2 defense-challenged weekend at the BTI Tip-Off Classic in Portland, so the beginning could have been better.

It's been a long time since Niagara's 2005 and 2007 NCAA breakthroughs after a quarter-century away from the Dance (at least I hope it is, for personal age-related reasons). And the 2009 team was superior to both, the 26-9 squad that came three possessions away from a return -- the Purple Eagles lost by seven in that season's MAAC title game up in Albany. ("Stuck behind Siena," indeed.) Five Niagara players who averaged 9.6 ppg or better have left due to eligibility cessation, and this is our first look at the new version of the Purps. Should be interesting in upstate.